Tech allies rally behind Jensen Huang, calling him vital in AI race

Detailed summary

Silicon Valley investors back Jensen Huang after his affair admission, calling Nvidia vital to America’s AI race. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The show of loyalty reflects Huang’s (pictured) rarefied standing in Silicon Valley.

SAN FRANCISCO – Within hours of Jensen Huang’s admission on Nov 8 that he had been unfaithful to his wife, some of Silicon Valley’s most influential investors closed ranks around him.

Their messages, delivered mostly on social media, were consistent. Huang’s relationship with a woman identified by US officials as a Chinese spy was a personal failing. Losing the Nvidia chief executive, they argued, would be a far bigger blow to the country, and America could not win the artificial intelligence race without him.

“Jensen is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation,” Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, wrote in a post on the afternoon of Nov 8. He said that Huang “did something incredibly dumb” and that it was bad for America, “but my guess is there was no bad intention”.

He concluded that Huang is “irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership”.

The show of loyalty reflects Huang’s rarefied standing in Silicon Valley. In the three decades since he co-founded Nvidia, he has gone from running a maker of video game graphics cards to presiding over the company at the centre of the AI boom, now one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Nvidia’s chips are the scarce resource every AI company needs, a position that makes Huang something of a kingmaker. Decisions about who gets his products, and how many, can shape which start-ups and tech giants pull ahead. Nvidia’s finances are also deeply intertwined with other leading AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic.

(China has rejected the espionage claims. Alice Huang, the Chinese executive accused of spying for Beijing, has not responded to requests for comment.)

Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, called Jensen Huang “an incredible human” who took “full responsibility as he should” and urged people to “support him and his family”. Later on Nov 8, Ackman added that he was “not suggesting he gets a free pass”.

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